Update: Yeti Airlines injured Jetstream-41 ‘9N-AIB’ remains grounded

MAY 18, 2017-BHAIRAHAWA

A British Aerospace 4101 Jetstream 41 with registration ‘9N-AIB’ belonging to Yeti Airlines met a runway excursion on September 24 last year at Gautam Buddha Airport during landing at Runway 10. The aircraft was commanded by Senior Captain D.B Shah, First Officer A.P Sharma, Cabin Crew S. Rana and had other 29 passengers onboard.

The aircraft was outbound from Kathmandu to Gautam Buddha Airport as a regular schedule passenger flight with flight number NYT893. It encountered the runway excursion and reached a grassy field while landing at around 5:00 pm.

Till date the ill-fated aircraft remains grounded at Gautam Buddha Airport. The incident was investigated by the Engineering teams and investigations officials from CAAN. According to the Yeti Airlines officials, the written-off chunk of the ill-fated aircraft has already been replaced but remaining damaged parts are untouched.

The major reason for the aircraft to jaunt the runway has been suspected to be the failure of braking system and malfunction of the engine reverse system. The aircraft suffered a substantial damage as nose landing folded rearwards, the aircraft nose was damaged, and one of the main landing gear legs was separated and the no.1 propeller blades were all bent. The aircraft was dislodged 150 meters south from the runway.

No METAR service was available, the local weather station reported at 14:45L winds from east-southeast at 4 knots, 8000 meters visibility, temperature 28 degrees C, dew point 25 degrees C, was partly cloudy, at 17:45L but the weather station reported as winds from east at 6 knots, 8000 meters visibility, temperature 28 degrees C, dew point 26 degrees C, was partly cloudy.

According to AIP (Aeronautical Information Publication) Nepal, the Gautam Buddha airport features a Bitumen runway 10/28 of 1500 meters length (LDA 1500 meters) and 30 meters width, VOR/DME approaches are published for both runways, runway 28 is equipped with SALS lighting system, runway 10 features no approach lights.